Many of electronic devices having information processing functions, typified by a personal computer and the like, include electronic components, such as a CPU, which produce heat while executing processes. The electronic component itself such as the CPU is a heat-producing element and may cause malfunction when a temperature thereof is excessively increased. Thus, most of the electronic devices such as the personal computer are internally equipped with some kind of means for cooling the electronic component such as the CPU.
As a method of cooling an electronic component in an electronic device, there is, for example, a method of drawing external air into an electronic device so that heat produced by an electronic component is absorbed into the drawn air, and then discharging the air that has absorbed the heat to the outside of the electronic device (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 09-164316). Also, as another example, there is a method of generating airflow in a device so that heat is absorbed into the airflow, and then discharging the airflow to the outside of the device.
In many of these types of cooling methods, an inlet and an outlet are formed in an electronic device, and a filter for removing foreign substances such as dirt mixed into the air used for cooling is attached to a position near these inlet and outlet. Further, it is desirable that such a filter be removably attached so that the filter may be periodically cleaned.
In order to removably attach the filter, a fixing section that enables this manner of attachment is required. Conventionally however, such a fixing section interferes with an appropriate arrangement of various types of elements in an electronic device, which is a problem.